Ljóðasafn

{
  "data": [
    {
      "author": "Geoffrey Chaucer",
      "line_count": "294",
      "lines": [
        "THE PROLOGUE.",
        "",
        "[\"YEA, let that passe,\" quoth our Host, \"as now.",
        "Sir Doctor of Physik, I praye you,",
        "Tell us a tale of some honest mattere.\"",
        "\"It shall be done, if that ye will it hear,\"",
        "Said this Doctor; and his tale gan anon.",
        "\"Now, good men,\" quoth he, \"hearken everyone.\"]",
        "",
        "THE TALE.",
        "",
        "There was, as telleth Titus Livius,",
        "A knight, that called was Virginius,",
        "Full filled of honour and worthiness,",
        "And strong of friendes, and of great richess.",
        "This knight one daughter hadde by his wife;",
        "No children had he more in all his life.",
        "Fair was this maid in excellent beauty",
        "Aboven ev'ry wight that man may see:",
        "For nature had with sov'reign diligence",
        "Y-formed her in so great excellence,",
        "As though she woulde say, \"Lo, I, Nature,",
        "Thus can I form and paint a creature,",
        "When that me list; who can me counterfeit?",
        "Pygmalion? not though he aye forge and beat,",
        "Or grave or painte: for I dare well sayn,",
        "Apelles, Zeuxis, shoulde work in vain,",
        "Either to grave, or paint, or forge, or beat,",
        "If they presumed me to counterfeit.",
        "For he that is the former principal,",
        "Hath made me his vicar-general",
        "To form and painten earthly creatures",
        "Right as me list, and all thing in my cure is,",
        "Under the moone, that may wane and wax.",
        "And for my work right nothing will I ax",
        "My lord and I be full of one accord.",
        "I made her to the worship of my lord;",
        "So do I all mine other creatures,",
        "What colour that they have, or what figures.\"",
        "Thus seemeth me that Nature woulde say.",
        "",
        "This maiden was of age twelve year and tway,",
        "In which that Nature hadde such delight.",
        "For right as she can paint a lily white,",
        "And red a rose, right with such painture",
        "She painted had this noble creature,",
        "Ere she was born, upon her limbes free,",
        "Where as by right such colours shoulde be:",
        "And Phoebus dyed had her tresses great,",
        "Like to the streames of his burned heat.",
        "And if that excellent was her beauty,",
        "A thousand-fold more virtuous was she.",
        "In her there lacked no condition,",
        "That is to praise, as by discretion.",
        "As well in ghost as body chaste was she:",
        "For which she flower'd in virginity,",
        "With all humility and abstinence,",
        "With alle temperance and patience,",
        "With measure eke of bearing and array.",
        "Discreet she was in answering alway,",
        "Though she were wise as Pallas, dare I sayn;",
        "Her faconde eke full womanly and plain,",
        "No counterfeited termes hadde she",
        "To seeme wise; but after her degree",
        "She spake, and all her worde's more and less",
        "Sounding in virtue and in gentleness.",
        "Shamefast she was in maiden's shamefastness,",
        "Constant in heart, and ever in business",
        "To drive her out of idle sluggardy:",
        "Bacchus had of her mouth right no mast'ry.",
        "For wine and slothe  do Venus increase,",
        "As men in fire will casten oil and grease.",
        "And of her owen virtue, unconstrain'd,",
        "She had herself full often sick y-feign'd,",
        "For that she woulde flee the company,",
        "Where likely was to treaten of folly,",
        "As is at feasts, at revels, and at dances,",
        "That be occasions of dalliances.",
        "Such thinges make children for to be",
        "Too soone ripe and bold, as men may see,",
        "Which is full perilous, and hath been yore;",
        "For all too soone may she learne lore",
        "Of boldeness, when that she is a wife.",
        "",
        "And ye mistresses, in your olde life",
        "That lordes' daughters have in governance,",
        "Take not of my wordes displeasance",
        "Thinke that ye be set in governings",
        "Of lordes' daughters only for two things;",
        "Either for ye have kept your honesty,",
        "Or else for ye have fallen in frailty",
        "And knowe well enough the olde dance,",
        "And have forsaken fully such meschance",
        "For evermore; therefore, for Christe's sake,",
        "To teach them virtue look that ye not slake.",
        "A thief of venison, that hath forlaft",
        "His lik'rousness, and all his olde craft,",
        "Can keep a forest best of any man;",
        "Now keep them well, for if ye will ye can.",
        "Look well, that ye unto no vice assent,",
        "Lest ye be damned for your wick' intent,",
        "For whoso doth, a traitor is certain;",
        "And take keep of that I shall you sayn;",
        "Of alle treason, sov'reign pestilence",
        "Is when a wight betrayeth innocence.",
        "Ye fathers, and ye mothers eke also,",
        "Though ye have children, be it one or mo',",
        "Yours is the charge of all their surveyance,",
        "While that they be under your governance.",
        "Beware, that by example of your living,",
        "Or by your negligence in chastising,",
        "That they not perish for I dare well say,",
        "If that they do, ye shall it dear abeye.",
        "Under a shepherd soft and negligent",
        "The wolf hath many a sheep and lamb to-rent.",
        "Suffice this example now as here,",
        "For I must turn again to my mattere.",
        "",
        "This maid, of which I tell my tale express,",
        "She kept herself, her needed no mistress;",
        "For in her living maidens mighte read,",
        "As in a book, ev'ry good word and deed",
        "That longeth to a maiden virtuous;",
        "She was so prudent and so bounteous.",
        "For which the fame out sprang on every side",
        "Both of her beauty and her bounte wide:",
        "That through the land they praised her each one",
        "That loved virtue, save envy alone,",
        "That sorry is of other manne's weal,",
        "And glad is of his sorrow and unheal --",
        "The Doctor maketh this descriptioun. --",
        "This maiden on a day went in the town",
        "Toward a temple, with her mother dear,",
        "As is of younge maidens the mannere.",
        "Now was there then a justice in that town,",
        "That governor was of that regioun:",
        "And so befell, this judge his eyen cast",
        "Upon this maid, avising her full fast,",
        "As she came forth by where this judge stood;",
        "Anon his hearte changed and his mood,",
        "So was he caught with beauty of this maid",
        "And to himself full privily he said,",
        "\"This maiden shall be mine for any man.\"",
        "Anon the fiend into his hearte ran,",
        "And taught him suddenly, that he by sleight",
        "This maiden to his purpose winne might.",
        "For certes, by no force, nor by no meed,",
        "Him thought he was not able for to speed;",
        "For she was strong of friendes, and eke she",
        "Confirmed was in such sov'reign bounte,",
        "That well he wist he might her never win,",
        "As for to make her with her body sin.",
        "For which, with great deliberatioun,",
        "He sent after a clerk   was in the town,",
        "The which he knew for subtle and for bold.",
        "This judge unto this clerk his tale told",
        "In secret wise, and made him to assure",
        "He shoulde tell it to no creature,",
        "And if he did, he shoulde lose his head.",
        "And when assented was this cursed rede,",
        "Glad was the judge, and made him greate cheer,",
        "And gave him giftes precious and dear.",
        "When shapen was all their conspiracy",
        "From point to point, how that his lechery",
        "Performed shoulde be full subtilly,",
        "As ye shall hear it after openly,",
        "Home went this clerk, that highte Claudius.",
        "This false judge, that highte Appius, --",
        "(So was his name, for it is no fable,",
        "But knowen for a storial thing notable;",
        "The sentence of it sooth is out of doubt); --",
        "This false judge went now fast about",
        "To hasten his delight all that he may.",
        "And so befell, soon after on a day,",
        "This false judge, as telleth us the story,",
        "As he was wont, sat in his consistory,",
        "And gave his doomes upon sundry case';",
        "This false clerk came forth a full great pace,",
        "And saide; Lord, if that it be your will,",
        "As do me right upon this piteous bill,",
        "In which I plain upon Virginius.",
        "And if that he will say it is not thus,",
        "I will it prove, and finde good witness,",
        "That sooth is what my bille will express.\"",
        "The judge answer'd, \"Of this, in his absence,",
        "I may not give definitive sentence.",
        "Let do him call, and I will gladly hear;",
        "Thou shalt have alle right, and no wrong here.\"",
        "Virginius came to weet the judge's will,",
        "And right anon was read this cursed bill;",
        "The sentence of it was as ye shall hear",
        "\"To you, my lord, Sir Appius so clear,",
        "Sheweth your poore servant Claudius,",
        "How that a knight called Virginius,",
        "Against the law, against all equity,",
        "Holdeth, express against the will of me,",
        "My servant, which that is my thrall by right,",
        "Which from my house was stolen on a night,",
        "While that she was full young; I will it preve",
        "By witness, lord, so that it you not grieve;",
        "She is his daughter not, what so he say.",
        "Wherefore to you, my lord the judge, I pray,",
        "Yield me my thrall, if that it be your will.\"",
        "Lo, this was all the sentence of the bill.",
        "Virginius gan upon the clerk behold;",
        "But hastily, ere he his tale told,",
        "And would have proved it, as should a knight,",
        "And eke by witnessing of many a wight,",
        "That all was false that said his adversary,",
        "This cursed judge would no longer tarry,",
        "Nor hear a word more of Virginius,",
        "But gave his judgement, and saide thus:",
        "\"I deem anon this clerk his servant have;",
        "Thou shalt no longer in thy house her save.",
        "Go, bring her forth, and put her in our ward",
        "The clerk shall have his thrall: thus I award.\"",
        "",
        "And when this worthy knight, Virginius,",
        "Through sentence of this justice Appius,",
        "Muste by force his deare daughter give",
        "Unto the judge, in lechery to live,",
        "He went him home, and sat him in his hall,",
        "And let anon his deare daughter call;",
        "And with a face dead as ashes cold",
        "Upon her humble face he gan behold,",
        "With father's pity sticking through his heart,",
        "All would he from his purpose not convert.",
        "\"Daughter,\" quoth he, \"Virginia by name,",
        "There be two wayes, either death or shame,",
        "That thou must suffer, -- alas that I was bore!",
        "For never thou deservedest wherefore",
        "To dien with a sword or with a knife,",
        "O deare daughter, ender of my life,",
        "Whom I have foster'd up with such pleasance",
        "That thou were ne'er out of my remembrance;",
        "O daughter, which that art my laste woe,",
        "And in this life my laste joy also,",
        "O gem of chastity, in patience",
        "Take thou thy death, for this is my sentence:",
        "For love and not for hate thou must be dead;",
        "My piteous hand must smiten off thine head.",
        "Alas, that ever Appius thee say!",
        "Thus hath he falsely judged thee to-day.\"",
        "And told her all the case, as ye before",
        "Have heard; it needeth not to tell it more.",
        "",
        "\"O mercy, deare father,\" quoth the maid.",
        "And with that word she both her armes laid",
        "About his neck, as she was wont to do,",
        "(The teares burst out of her eyen two),",
        "And said, \"O goode father, shall I die?",
        "Is there no grace? is there no remedy?\"",
        "\"No, certes, deare daughter mine,\" quoth he.",
        "\"Then give me leisure, father mine, quoth she,",
        "\"My death for to complain a little space",
        "For, pardie, Jephthah gave his daughter grace",
        "For to complain, ere he her slew, alas!",
        "And, God it wot, nothing was her trespass,",
        "But for she ran her father first to see,",
        "To welcome him with great solemnity.\"",
        "And with that word she fell a-swoon anon;",
        "And after, when her swooning was y-gone,",
        "She rose up, and unto her father said:",
        "\"Blessed be God, that I shall die a maid.",
        "Give me my death, ere that I have shame;",
        "Do with your child your will, in Godde's name.\"",
        "And with that word she prayed him full oft",
        "That with his sword he woulde smite her soft;",
        "And with that word, a-swoon again she fell.",
        "Her father, with full sorrowful heart and fell,",
        "Her head off smote, and by the top it hent,",
        "And to the judge he went it to present,",
        "As he sat yet in doom in consistory.",
        "",
        "And when the judge it saw, as saith the story,",
        "He bade to take him, and to hang him fast.",
        "But right anon a thousand people in thrast",
        "To save the knight, for ruth and for pity",
        "For knowen was the false iniquity.",
        "The people anon had suspect in this thing,",
        "By manner of the clerke's challenging,",
        "That it was by th'assent of Appius;",
        "They wiste well that he was lecherous.",
        "For which unto this Appius they gon,",
        "And cast him in a prison right anon,",
        "Where as he slew himself: and Claudius,",
        "That servant was unto this Appius,",
        "Was doomed for to hang upon a tree;",
        "But that Virginius, of his pity,",
        "So prayed for him, that he was exil'd;",
        "And elles certes had he been beguil'd;",
        "The remenant were hanged, more and less,",
        "That were consenting to this cursedness.",
        "Here men may see how sin hath his merite:",
        "Beware, for no man knows how God will smite",
        "In no degree, nor in which manner wise",
        "The worm of conscience may agrise",
        "Of  wicked life, though it so privy be,",
        "That no man knows thereof, save God and he;",
        "For be he lewed man or elles lear'd,",
        "He knows not how soon he shall be afear'd;",
        "Therefore I rede you this counsel take,",
        "Forsake sin, ere sinne you forsake."
      ],
      "title": "The Canterbury Tales: The Doctor's Tale"
    },
    {
      "author": "Alexander Pope",
      "line_count": "366",
      "lines": [
        "In these deep solitudes and awful cells,",
        "Where heavenly-pensive Contemplation dwells,",
        "And ever-musing Melancholy reigns,",
        "What means this tumult in a vestal's veins?",
        "Why rove my thoughts beyond this last retreat?",
        "Why feels my heart its long-forgotten heat?",
        "Yet, yet I love!--From Abelard it came,",
        "And Eloisa yet must kiss the name.",
        "",
        "Dear fatal name! rest ever unreveal'd,",
        "Nor pass these lips in holy silence seal'd:",
        "Hide it, my heart, within that close disguise",
        "Where, mix'd with God's, his loved idea lies:",
        "Oh write it not, my hand!--the name appears",
        "Already written--wash it out, my tears!",
        "In vain lost Eloisa weeps and prays,",
        "Her heart still dictates, and her hand obeys.",
        "",
        "Relentless walls! whose darksome round contains",
        "Repentant sighs, and voluntary pains:",
        "Ye rugged rocks! which holy knees have worn;",
        "Ye grots and caverns, shagg'd with horrid thorn!",
        "Shrines! where their vigils pale-eyed virgins keep,",
        "And pitying saints, whose statues learn to weep!",
        "Though cold like you, unmoved and silent grown,",
        "I have not yet forgot myself to stone.",
        "All is not Heaven's while Abelard has part,",
        "Still rebel nature holds out half my heart;",
        "Nor prayers nor fasts its stubborn pulse restrain,",
        "Nor tears for ages taught to flow in vain.",
        "",
        "Soon as thy letters trembling I unclose,",
        "That well-known name awakens all my woes.",
        "Oh, name for ever sad! for ever dear!",
        "Still breathed in sighs, still usher'd with a tear.",
        "I tremble too, where'er my own I find,",
        "Some dire misfortune follows close behind.",
        "Line after line my gushing eyes o'erflow,",
        "Led through a sad variety of woe;",
        "Now warm in love, now withering in my bloom,",
        "Lost in a convent's solitary gloom!",
        "There stern religion quench'd the unwilling flame,",
        "There died the best of passions, Love and Fame.",
        "",
        "Yet write, oh! write me all, that I may join",
        "Griefs to thy griefs, and echo sighs to thine.",
        "Nor foes nor fortune take this power away;",
        "And is my Abelard less kind than they?",
        "Tears still are mine, and those I need not spare,",
        "Love but demands what else were shed in prayer;",
        "No happier task these faded eyes pursue;",
        "To read and weep is all they now can do.",
        "",
        "Then share thy pain, allow that sad relief;",
        "Ah, more than share it, give me all thy grief!",
        "Heaven first taught letters for some wretch's aid,",
        "Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid;",
        "They live, they speak, they breathe what love inspires,",
        "Warm from the soul, and faithful to its fires;",
        "The virgin's wish without her fears impart,",
        "Excuse the blush, and pour out all the heart,",
        "Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul,",
        "And waft a sigh from Indus to the Pole.",
        "",
        "Thou know'st how guiltless first I met thy flame,",
        "When Love approach'd me under Friendship's name;",
        "My fancy form'd thee of angelic kind,",
        "Some emanation of the all-beauteous Mind.",
        "Those smiling eyes, attempering every ray,",
        "Shone sweetly lambent with celestial day.",
        "Guiltless I gazed; Heaven listen'd while you sung;",
        "And truths divine came mended from that tongue.",
        "From lips like those, what precept fail'd to move?",
        "Too soon they taught me 'twas no sin to love:",
        "Back through the paths of pleasing sense I ran,",
        "Nor wish'd an angel whom I loved a man.",
        "Dim and remote the joys of saints I see;",
        "Nor envy them that heaven I lose for thee.",
        "",
        "How oft, when press'd to marriage, have I said,",
        "Curse on all laws but those which Love has made!",
        "Love, free as air, at sight of human ties,",
        "Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.",
        "Let wealth, let honour, wait the wedded dame,",
        "August her deed, and sacred be her fame;",
        "Before true passion all those views remove;",
        "Fame, wealth, and honour! what are you to Love?",
        "The jealous god, when we profane his fires,",
        "Those restless passions in revenge inspires,",
        "And bids them make mistaken mortals groan,",
        "Who seek in love for aught but love alone.",
        "Should at my feet the world's great master fall,",
        "Himself, his throne, his world, I'd scorn them all:",
        "Not Cæsar's empress would I deign to prove;",
        "No, make me mistress to the man I love;",
        "If there be yet another name more free,",
        "More fond than mistress, make me that to thee!",
        "Oh, happy state! when souls each other draw,",
        "When love is liberty, and nature law:",
        "All then is full, possessing and possess'd,",
        "No craving void left aching in the breast:",
        "Even thought meets thought, ere from the lips it part,",
        "And each warm wish springs mutual from the heart.",
        "This, sure, is bliss (if bliss on earth there be)",
        "And once the lot of Abelard and me.",
        "",
        "Alas, how changed! what sudden horrors rise!",
        "A naked lover bound and bleeding lies!",
        "Where, where was Eloise? her voice, her hand,",
        "Her poniard, had opposed the dire command.",
        "Barbarian, stay! that bloody stroke restrain;",
        "The crime was common, common be the pain.",
        "I can no more; by shame, by rage suppress'd,",
        "Let tears and burning blushes speak the rest.",
        "",
        "Canst thou forget that sad, that solemn day,",
        "When victims at yon altar's foot we lay?",
        "Canst thou forget what tears that moment fell,",
        "When, warm in youth, I bade the world farewell?",
        "As with cold lips I kiss'd the sacred veil,",
        "The shrines all trembled, and the lamps grew pale:",
        "Heaven scarce believed the conquest it survey'd,",
        "And saints with wonder heard the vows I made.",
        "Yet then, to those dread altars as I drew,",
        "Not on the cross my eyes were fix'd, but you:",
        "Not grace, or zeal, love only was my call,",
        "And if I lose thy love, I lose my all.",
        "Come! with thy looks, thy words, relieve my woe;",
        "Those still at least are left thee to bestow.",
        "Still on that breast enamour'd let me lie,",
        "Still drink delicious poison from thy eye,",
        "Pant on thy lip, and to thy heart be press'd;",
        "Give all thou canst--and let me dream the rest.",
        "Ah, no! instruct me other joys to prize,",
        "With other beauties charm my partial eyes,",
        "Full in my view set all the bright abode,",
        "And make my soul quit Abelard for God.",
        "",
        "Ah, think at least thy flock deserves thy care,",
        "Plants of thy hand, and children of thy prayer.",
        "From the false world in early youth they fled,",
        "By thee to mountains, wilds, and deserts led.",
        "You raised these hallow'd walls; the desert smiled,",
        "And Paradise was open'd in the wild.",
        "No weeping orphan saw his father's stores",
        "Our shrines irradiate, or emblaze the floors;",
        "No silver saints, by dying misers given,",
        "Here bribed the rage of ill-requited Heaven:",
        "But such plain roofs as Piety could raise,",
        "And only vocal with the Maker's praise.",
        "In these lone walls, (their day's eternal bound)",
        "These moss-grown domes with spiry turrets crown'd,",
        "Where awful arches make a noonday night,",
        "And the dim windows shed a solemn light;",
        "Thy eyes diffused a reconciling ray,",
        "And gleams of glory brighten'd all the day.",
        "But now no face divine contentment wears,",
        "'Tis all blank sadness, or continual tears.",
        "See how the force of others' prayers I try,",
        "(Oh pious fraud of amorous charity!)",
        "But why should I on others' prayers depend?",
        "Come thou, my father, brother, husband, friend!",
        "Ah, let thy handmaid, sister, daughter move,",
        "And all those tender names in one--thy love!",
        "The darksome pines that, o'er yon rocks reclined,",
        "Wave high, and murmur to the hollow wind,",
        "The wandering streams that shine between the hills,",
        "The grots that echo to the tinkling rills,",
        "The dying gales that pant upon the trees,",
        "The lakes that quiver to the curling breeze;",
        "No more these scenes my meditation aid,",
        "Or lull to rest the visionary maid.",
        "But o'er the twilight groves and dusky caves,",
        "Long-sounding aisles, and intermingled graves,",
        "Black Melancholy sits, and round her throws",
        "A death-like silence, and a dread repose:",
        "Her gloomy presence saddens all the scene,",
        "Shades every flower, and darkens every green,",
        "Deepens the murmur of the falling floods,",
        "And breathes a browner horror on the woods.",
        "",
        "Yet here for ever, ever must I stay;",
        "Sad proof how well a lover can obey!",
        "Death, only death, can break the lasting chain;",
        "And here, even then, shall my cold dust remain;",
        "Here all its frailties, all its flames resign,",
        "And wait till 'tis no sin to mix with thine.",
        "",
        "Ah, wretch! believed the spouse of God in vain,",
        "Confess'd within the slave of love and man.",
        "Assist me, Heaven! but whence arose that prayer?",
        "Sprung it from piety, or from despair?",
        "Even here, where frozen chastity retires,",
        "Love finds an altar for forbidden fires.",
        "I ought to grieve, but cannot what I ought;",
        "I mourn the lover, not lament the fault;",
        "I view my crime, but kindle at the view,",
        "Repent old pleasures, and solicit new;",
        "Now turn'd to Heaven, I weep my past offence,",
        "Now think of thee, and curse my innocence.",
        "Of all affliction taught a lover yet,",
        "'Tis sure the hardest science to forget!",
        "How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense,",
        "And love the offender, yet detest the offence?",
        "How the dear object from the crime remove,",
        "Or how distinguish penitence from love?",
        "Unequal task! a passion to resign,",
        "For hearts so touch'd, so pierced, so lost as mine.",
        "Ere such a soul regains its peaceful state,",
        "How often must it love, how often hate!",
        "How often hope, despair, resent, regret,",
        "Conceal, disdain,--do all things but forget!",
        "But let Heaven seize it, all at once 'tis fired;",
        "Not touch'd, but rapt; not waken'd, but inspired!",
        "Oh come! oh teach me nature to subdue,",
        "Renounce my love, my life, myself--and you.",
        "Fill my fond heart with God alone, for He",
        "Alone can rival, can succeed to thee.",
        "",
        "How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot!",
        "The world forgetting, by the world forgot:",
        "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!",
        "Each prayer accepted, and each wish resign'd;",
        "Labour and rest, that equal periods keep;",
        "'Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep;'",
        "Desires composed, affections ever even;",
        "Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to heaven.",
        "Grace shines around her with serenest beams,",
        "And whispering angels prompt her golden dreams.",
        "For her the unfading rose of Eden blooms,",
        "And wings of seraphs shed divine perfumes;",
        "For her the spouse prepares the bridal ring,",
        "For her white virgins hymeneals sing,",
        "To sounds of heavenly harps she dies away,",
        "And melts in visions of eternal day.",
        "",
        "Far other dreams my erring soul employ,",
        "Far other raptures, of unholy joy:",
        "When at the close of each sad, sorrowing day,",
        "Fancy restores what vengeance snatch'd away,",
        "Then conscience sleeps, and leaving nature free,",
        "All my loose soul unbounded springs to thee.",
        "O curst, dear horrors of all-conscious night!",
        "How glowing guilt exalts the keen delight!",
        "Provoking demons all restraint remove,",
        "And stir within me every source of love.",
        "I hear thee, view thee, gaze o'er all thy charms,",
        "And round thy phantom glue my clasping arms.",
        "I wake:--no more I hear, no more I view,",
        "The phantom flies me, as unkind as you.",
        "I call aloud; it hears not what I say:",
        "I stretch my empty arms; it glides away.",
        "To dream once more I close my willing eyes;",
        "Ye soft illusions, dear deceits, arise!",
        "Alas, no more! methinks we wandering go",
        "Through dreary wastes, and weep each other's woe,",
        "Where round some mouldering tower pale ivy creeps,",
        "And low-brow'd rocks hang nodding o'er the deeps.",
        "Sudden you mount, you beckon from the skies;",
        "Clouds interpose, waves roar, and winds arise.",
        "I shriek, start up, the same sad prospect find,",
        "And wake to all the griefs I left behind.",
        "",
        "For thee the Fates, severely kind, ordain",
        "A cool suspense from pleasure and from pain;",
        "Thy life a long dead calm of fix'd repose;",
        "No pulse that riots, and no blood that glows.",
        "Still as the sea, ere winds were taught to blow,",
        "Or moving spirit bade the waters flow;",
        "Soft as the slumbers of a saint forgiven,",
        "And mild as opening gleams of promised heaven.",
        "",
        "Come, Abelard! for what hast thou to dread?",
        "The torch of Venus burns not for the dead.",
        "Nature stands check'd; Religion disapproves;",
        "Even thou art cold--yet Eloisa loves.",
        "Ah hopeless, lasting flames! like those that burn",
        "To light the dead, and warm the unfruitful urn.",
        "",
        "What scenes appear where'er I turn my view?",
        "The dear ideas, where I fly, pursue,",
        "Rise in the grove, before the altar rise,",
        "Stain all my soul, and wanton in my eyes.",
        "I waste the matin lamp in sighs for thee,",
        "Thy image steals between my God and me,",
        "Thy voice I seem in every hymn to hear,",
        "With every bead I drop too soft a tear.",
        "When from the censer clouds of fragrance roll,",
        "And swelling organs lift the rising soul,",
        "One thought of thee puts all the pomp to flight,",
        "Priests, tapers, temples, swim before my sight:",
        "In seas of flame my plunging soul is drown'd,",
        "While altars blaze, and angels tremble round.",
        "",
        "While prostrate here in humble grief I lie,",
        "Kind, virtuous drops just gathering in my eye,",
        "While praying, trembling, in the dust I roll,",
        "And dawning grace is opening on my soul:",
        "Come, if thou dar'st, all charming as thou art!",
        "Oppose thyself to heaven; dispute my heart;",
        "Come, with one glance of those deluding eyes",
        "Blot out each bright idea of the skies;",
        "Take back that grace, those sorrows, and those tears;",
        "Take back my fruitless penitence and prayers;",
        "Snatch me, just mounting, from the blest abode;",
        "Assist the fiends, and tear me from my God!",
        "",
        "No, fly me, fly me, far as pole from pole;",
        "Rise Alps between us! and whole oceans roll!",
        "Ah, come not, write not, think not once of me,",
        "Nor share one pang of all I felt for thee!",
        "Thy oaths I quit, thy memory resign;",
        "Forget, renounce me, hate whate'er was mine.",
        "Fair eyes, and tempting looks (which yet I view)",
        "Long loved, adored ideas, all adieu!",
        "O Grace serene! O Virtue heavenly fair!",
        "Divine oblivion of low-thoughted care!",
        "Fresh blooming Hope, gay daughter of the sky!",
        "And Faith, our early immortality!",
        "Enter, each mild, each amicable guest;",
        "Receive, and wrap me in eternal rest!",
        "",
        "See in her cell sad Eloisa spread,",
        "Propp'd on some tomb, a neighbour of the dead.",
        "In each low wind methinks a spirit calls,",
        "And more than echoes talk along the walls.",
        "Here, as I watch'd the dying lamps around,",
        "From yonder shrine I heard a hollow sound.",
        "'Come, sister, come!' (it said, or seem'd to say)",
        "'Thy place is here, sad sister, come away!",
        "Once like thyself, I trembled, wept, and pray'd,",
        "Love's victim then, though now a sainted maid:",
        "But all is calm in this eternal sleep;",
        "Here Grief forgets to groan, and Love to weep,",
        "Even Superstition loses every fear:",
        "For God, not man, absolves our frailties here.'",
        "",
        "I come, I come! prepare your roseate bowers,",
        "Celestial palms, and ever-blooming flowers.",
        "Thither, where sinners may have rest, I go,",
        "Where flames refined in breasts seraphic glow:",
        "Thou, Abelard! the last sad office pay,",
        "And smooth my passage to the realms of day;",
        "See my lips tremble, and my eyeballs roll,",
        "Suck my last breath, and catch my flying soul!",
        "Ah, no!--in sacred vestments may'st thou stand,",
        "The hallow'd taper trembling in thy hand,",
        "Present the cross before my lifted eye,",
        "Teach me at once, and learn of me to die.",
        "Ah, then thy once-loved Eloisa see!",
        "It will be then no crime to gaze on me.",
        "See from my cheek the transient roses fly!",
        "See the last sparkle languish in my eye!",
        "Till every motion, pulse, and breath be o'er;",
        "And even my Abelard be loved no more.",
        "O Death all-eloquent! you only prove",
        "What dust we doat on when 'tis man we love.",
        "",
        "Then too, when fate shall thy fair frame destroy,",
        "(That cause of all my guilt, and all my joy!)",
        "In trance ecstatic may thy pangs be drown'd,",
        "Bright clouds descend, and angels watch thee round,",
        "From opening skies may streaming glories shine,",
        "And saints embrace thee with a love like mine.",
        "",
        "May one kind grave unite each hapless name,",
        "And graft my love immortal on thy fame!",
        "Then, ages hence, when all my woes are o'er,",
        "When this rebellious heart shall beat no more;",
        "If ever chance two wandering lovers brings",
        "To Paraclete's white walls and silver springs,",
        "O'er the pale marble shall they join their heads,",
        "And drink the falling tears each other sheds;",
        "Then sadly say,--with mutual pity moved,",
        "'Oh, may we never love as these have loved!'",
        "From the full choir when loud hosannas rise,",
        "And swell the pomp of dreadful sacrifice,",
        "Amid that scene, if some relenting eye",
        "Glance on the stone where our cold relics lie,",
        "Devotion's self shall steal a thought from heaven,",
        "One human tear shall drop, and be forgiven.",
        "And sure, if Fate some future bard shall join",
        "In sad similitude of griefs to mine,",
        "Condemn'd whole years in absence to deplore,",
        "And image charms he must behold no more;",
        "Such if there be, who love so long, so well,",
        "Let him our sad, our tender story tell;",
        "The well-sung woes will soothe my pensive ghost;",
        "He best can paint them who shall feel them most."
      ],
      "title": "Eloisa to Abelard"
    },
    {
      "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley",
      "line_count": "632",
      "lines": [
        "A FRAGMENT.",
        "",
        "PART 1.",
        "",
        "Nec tantum prodere vati,",
        "Quantum scire licet. Venit aetas omnis in unam",
        "Congeriem, miserumque premunt tot saecula pectus.",
        "LUCAN, Phars. v. 176.",
        "",
        "How wonderful is Death,",
        "Death and his brother Sleep!",
        "One pale as yonder wan and horned moon,",
        "With lips of lurid blue,",
        "The other glowing like the vital morn,",
        "When throned on ocean's wave",
        "It breathes over the world:",
        "Yet both so passing strange and wonderful!",
        "",
        "Hath then the iron-sceptred Skeleton,",
        "Whose reign is in the tainted sepulchres,",
        "To the hell dogs that couch beneath his throne",
        "Cast that fair prey? Must that divinest form,",
        "Which love and admiration cannot view",
        "Without a beating heart, whose azure veins",
        "Steal like dark streams along a field of snow,",
        "Whose outline is as fair as marble clothed",
        "In light of some sublimest mind, decay?",
        "Nor putrefaction's breath",
        "Leave aught of this pure spectacle",
        "But loathsomeness and ruin?--",
        "Spare aught but a dark theme,",
        "On which the lightest heart might moralize?",
        "Or is it but that downy-winged slumbers",
        "Have charmed their nurse coy Silence near her lids",
        "To watch their own repose?",
        "Will they, when morning's beam",
        "Flows through those wells of light,",
        "Seek far from noise and day some western cave,",
        "Where woods and streams with soft and pausing winds",
        "A lulling murmur weave?--",
        "Ianthe doth not sleep",
        "The dreamless sleep of death:",
        "Nor in her moonlight chamber silently",
        "Doth Henry hear her regular pulses throb,",
        "Or mark her delicate cheek",
        "With interchange of hues mock the broad moon,",
        "Outwatching weary night,",
        "Without assured reward.",
        "Her dewy eyes are closed;",
        "On their translucent lids, whose texture fine",
        "Scarce hides the dark blue orbs that burn below",
        "With unapparent fire,",
        "The baby Sleep is pillowed:",
        "Her golden tresses shade",
        "The bosom's stainless pride,",
        "Twining like tendrils of the parasite",
        "Around a marble column.",
        "",
        "Hark! whence that rushing sound?",
        "'Tis like a wondrous strain that sweeps",
        "Around a lonely ruin",
        "When west winds sigh and evening waves respond",
        "In whispers from the shore:",
        "'Tis wilder than the unmeasured notes",
        "Which from the unseen lyres of dells and groves",
        "The genii of the breezes sweep.",
        "Floating on waves of music and of light,",
        "The chariot of the Daemon of the World",
        "Descends in silent power:",
        "Its shape reposed within: slight as some cloud",
        "That catches but the palest tinge of day",
        "When evening yields to night,",
        "Bright as that fibrous woof when stars indue",
        "Its transitory robe.",
        "Four shapeless shadows bright and beautiful",
        "Draw that strange car of glory, reins of light",
        "Check their unearthly speed; they stop and fold",
        "Their wings of braided air:",
        "The Daemon leaning from the ethereal car",
        "Gazed on the slumbering maid.",
        "Human eye hath ne'er beheld",
        "A shape so wild, so bright, so beautiful,",
        "As that which o'er the maiden's charmed sleep",
        "Waving a starry wand,",
        "Hung like a mist of light.",
        "Such sounds as breathed around like odorous winds",
        "Of wakening spring arose,",
        "Filling the chamber and the moonlight sky.",
        "Maiden, the world's supremest spirit",
        "Beneath the shadow of her wings",
        "Folds all thy memory doth inherit",
        "From ruin of divinest things,",
        "Feelings that lure thee to betray,",
        "And light of thoughts that pass away.",
        "For thou hast earned a mighty boon,",
        "The truths which wisest poets see",
        "Dimly, thy mind may make its own,",
        "Rewarding its own majesty,",
        "Entranced in some diviner mood",
        "Of self-oblivious solitude.",
        "",
        "Custom, and Faith, and Power thou spurnest;",
        "From hate and awe thy heart is free;",
        "Ardent and pure as day thou burnest,",
        "For dark and cold mortality",
        "A living light, to cheer it long,",
        "The watch-fires of the world among.",
        "",
        "Therefore from nature's inner shrine,",
        "Where gods and fiends in worship bend,",
        "Majestic spirit, be it thine",
        "The flame to seize, the veil to rend,",
        "Where the vast snake Eternity",
        "In charmed sleep doth ever lie.",
        "",
        "All that inspires thy voice of love,",
        "Or speaks in thy unclosing eyes,",
        "Or through thy frame doth burn or move,",
        "Or think or feel, awake, arise!",
        "Spirit, leave for mine and me",
        "Earth's unsubstantial mimicry!",
        "",
        "It ceased, and from the mute and moveless frame",
        "A radiant spirit arose,",
        "All beautiful in naked purity.",
        "Robed in its human hues it did ascend,",
        "Disparting as it went the silver clouds,",
        "It moved towards the car, and took its seat",
        "Beside the Daemon shape.",
        "",
        "Obedient to the sweep of aery song,",
        "The mighty ministers",
        "Unfurled their prismy wings.",
        "The magic car moved on;",
        "The night was fair, innumerable stars",
        "Studded heaven's dark blue vault;",
        "The eastern wave grew pale",
        "With the first smile of morn.",
        "The magic car moved on.",
        "From the swift sweep of wings",
        "The atmosphere in flaming sparkles flew;",
        "And where the burning wheels",
        "Eddied above the mountain's loftiest peak",
        "Was traced a line of lightning.",
        "Now far above a rock the utmost verge",
        "Of the wide earth it flew,",
        "The rival of the Andes, whose dark brow",
        "Frowned o'er the silver sea.",
        "Far, far below the chariot's stormy path,",
        "Calm as a slumbering babe,",
        "Tremendous ocean lay.",
        "Its broad and silent mirror gave to view",
        "The pale and waning stars,",
        "The chariot's fiery track,",
        "And the grey light of morn",
        "Tingeing those fleecy clouds",
        "That cradled in their folds the infant dawn.",
        "The chariot seemed to fly",
        "Through the abyss of an immense concave,",
        "Radiant with million constellations, tinged",
        "With shades of infinite colour,",
        "And semicircled with a belt",
        "Flashing incessant meteors.",
        "",
        "As they approached their goal,",
        "The winged shadows seemed to gather speed.",
        "The sea no longer was distinguished; earth",
        "Appeared a vast and shadowy sphere, suspended",
        "In the black concave of heaven",
        "With the sun's cloudless orb,",
        "Whose rays of rapid light",
        "Parted around the chariot's swifter course,",
        "And fell like ocean's feathery spray",
        "Dashed from the boiling surge",
        "Before a vessel's prow.",
        "",
        "The magic car moved on.",
        "Earth's distant orb appeared",
        "The smallest light that twinkles in the heavens,",
        "Whilst round the chariot's way",
        "Innumerable systems widely rolled,",
        "And countless spheres diffused",
        "An ever varying glory.",
        "It was a sight of wonder! Some were horned,",
        "And like the moon's argentine crescent hung",
        "In the dark dome of heaven; some did shed",
        "A clear mild beam like Hesperus, while the sea",
        "Yet glows with fading sunlight; others dashed",
        "Athwart the night with trains of bickering fire,",
        "Like sphered worlds to death and ruin driven;",
        "Some shone like stars, and as the chariot passed",
        "Bedimmed all other light.",
        "",
        "Spirit of Nature! here",
        "In this interminable wilderness",
        "Of worlds, at whose involved immensity",
        "Even soaring fancy staggers,",
        "Here is thy fitting temple.",
        "Yet not the lightest leaf",
        "That quivers to the passing breeze",
        "Is less instinct with thee,--",
        "Yet not the meanest worm.",
        "That lurks in graves and fattens on the dead,",
        "Less shares thy eternal breath.",
        "Spirit of Nature! thou",
        "Imperishable as this glorious scene,",
        "Here is thy fitting temple.",
        "",
        "If solitude hath ever led thy steps",
        "To the shore of the immeasurable sea,",
        "And thou hast lingered there",
        "Until the sun's broad orb",
        "Seemed resting on the fiery line of ocean,",
        "Thou must have marked the braided webs of gold",
        "That without motion hang",
        "Over the sinking sphere:",
        "Thou must have marked the billowy mountain clouds,",
        "Edged with intolerable radiancy,",
        "Towering like rocks of jet",
        "Above the burning deep:",
        "And yet there is a moment",
        "When the sun's highest point",
        "Peers like a star o'er ocean's western edge,",
        "When those far clouds of feathery purple gleam",
        "Like fairy lands girt by some heavenly sea:",
        "Then has thy rapt imagination soared",
        "Where in the midst of all existing things",
        "The temple of the mightiest Daemon stands.",
        "",
        "Yet not the golden islands",
        "That gleam amid yon flood of purple light,",
        "Nor the feathery curtains",
        "That canopy the sun's resplendent couch,",
        "Nor the burnished ocean waves",
        "Paving that gorgeous dome,",
        "So fair, so wonderful a sight",
        "As the eternal temple could afford.",
        "The elements of all that human thought",
        "Can frame of lovely or sublime, did join",
        "To rear the fabric of the fane, nor aught",
        "Of earth may image forth its majesty.",
        "Yet likest evening's vault that faery hall,",
        "As heaven low resting on the wave it spread",
        "Its floors of flashing light,",
        "Its vast and azure dome;",
        "And on the verge of that obscure abyss",
        "Where crystal battlements o'erhang the gulf",
        "Of the dark world, ten thousand spheres diffuse",
        "Their lustre through its adamantine gates.",
        "",
        "The magic car no longer moved;",
        "The Daemon and the Spirit",
        "Entered the eternal gates.",
        "Those clouds of aery gold",
        "That slept in glittering billows",
        "Beneath the azure canopy,",
        "With the ethereal footsteps trembled not;",
        "While slight and odorous mists",
        "Floated to strains of thrilling melody",
        "Through the vast columns and the pearly shrines.",
        "",
        "The Daemon and the Spirit",
        "Approached the overhanging battlement,",
        "Below lay stretched the boundless universe!",
        "There, far as the remotest line",
        "That limits swift imagination's flight.",
        "Unending orbs mingled in mazy motion,",
        "Immutably fulfilling",
        "Eternal Nature's law.",
        "Above, below, around,",
        "The circling systems formed",
        "A wilderness of harmony.",
        "Each with undeviating aim",
        "In eloquent silence through the depths of space",
        "Pursued its wondrous way.--",
        "",
        "Awhile the Spirit paused in ecstasy.",
        "Yet soon she saw, as the vast spheres swept by,",
        "Strange things within their belted orbs appear.",
        "Like animated frenzies, dimly moved",
        "Shadows, and skeletons, and fiendly shapes,",
        "Thronging round human graves, and o'er the dead",
        "Sculpturing records for each memory",
        "In verse, such as malignant gods pronounce,",
        "Blasting the hopes of men, when heaven and hell",
        "Confounded burst in ruin o'er the world:",
        "And they did build vast trophies, instruments",
        "Of murder, human bones, barbaric gold,",
        "Skins torn from living men, and towers of skulls",
        "With sightless holes gazing on blinder heaven,",
        "Mitres, and crowns, and brazen chariots stained",
        "With blood, and scrolls of mystic wickedness,",
        "The sanguine codes of venerable crime.",
        "The likeness of a throned king came by.",
        "When these had passed, bearing upon his brow",
        "A threefold crown; his countenance was calm.",
        "His eye severe and cold; but his right hand",
        "Was charged with bloody coin, and he did gnaw",
        "By fits, with secret smiles, a human heart",
        "Concealed beneath his robe; and motley shapes,",
        "A multitudinous throng, around him knelt.",
        "With bosoms bare, and bowed heads, and false looks",
        "Of true submission, as the sphere rolled by.",
        "Brooking no eye to witness their foul shame,",
        "Which human hearts must feel, while human tongues",
        "Tremble to speak, they did rage horribly,",
        "Breathing in self-contempt fierce blasphemies",
        "Against the Daemon of the World, and high",
        "Hurling their armed hands where the pure Spirit,",
        "Serene and inaccessibly secure,",
        "Stood on an isolated pinnacle.",
        "The flood of ages combating below,",
        "The depth of the unbounded universe",
        "Above, and all around",
        "Necessity's unchanging harmony.",
        "",
        "PART 2.",
        "",
        "O happy Earth! reality of Heaven!",
        "To which those restless powers that ceaselessly",
        "Throng through the human universe aspire;",
        "Thou consummation of all mortal hope!",
        "Thou glorious prize of blindly-working will!",
        "Whose rays, diffused throughout all space and time,",
        "Verge to one point and blend for ever there:",
        "Of purest spirits thou pure dwelling-place!",
        "Where care and sorrow, impotence and crime,",
        "Languor, disease, and ignorance dare not come:",
        "O happy Earth, reality of Heaven!",
        "",
        "Genius has seen thee in her passionate dreams,",
        "And dim forebodings of thy loveliness,",
        "Haunting the human heart, have there entwined",
        "Those rooted hopes, that the proud Power of Evil",
        "Shall not for ever on this fairest world",
        "Shake pestilence and war, or that his slaves",
        "With blasphemy for prayer, and human blood",
        "For sacrifice, before his shrine for ever",
        "In adoration bend, or Erebus",
        "With all its banded fiends shall not uprise",
        "To overwhelm in envy and revenge",
        "The dauntless and the good, who dare to hurl",
        "Defiance at his throne, girt tho' it be",
        "With Death's omnipotence. Thou hast beheld",
        "His empire, o'er the present and the past;",
        "It was a desolate sight--now gaze on mine,",
        "Futurity. Thou hoary giant Time,",
        "Render thou up thy half-devoured babes,--",
        "And from the cradles of eternity,",
        "Where millions lie lulled to their portioned sleep",
        "By the deep murmuring stream of passing things,",
        "Tear thou that gloomy shroud.--Spirit, behold",
        "Thy glorious destiny!",
        "",
        "The Spirit saw",
        "The vast frame of the renovated world",
        "Smile in the lap of Chaos, and the sense",
        "Of hope thro' her fine texture did suffuse",
        "Such varying glow, as summer evening casts",
        "On undulating clouds and deepening lakes.",
        "Like the vague sighings of a wind at even,",
        "That wakes the wavelets of the slumbering sea",
        "And dies on the creation of its breath,",
        "And sinks and rises, fails and swells by fits,",
        "Was the sweet stream of thought that with wild motion",
        "Flowed o'er the Spirit's human sympathies.",
        "The mighty tide of thought had paused awhile,",
        "Which from the Daemon now like Ocean's stream",
        "Again began to pour.--",
        "",
        "To me is given",
        "The wonders of the human world to keep-",
        "Space, matter, time and mind--let the sight",
        "Renew and strengthen all thy failing hope.",
        "All things are recreated, and the flame",
        "Of consentaneous love inspires all life:",
        "The fertile bosom of the earth gives suck",
        "To myriads, who still grow beneath her care,",
        "Rewarding her with their pure perfectness:",
        "The balmy breathings of the wind inhale",
        "Her virtues, and diffuse them all abroad:",
        "Health floats amid the gentle atmosphere,",
        "Glows in the fruits, and mantles on the stream;",
        "No storms deform the beaming brow of heaven,",
        "Nor scatter in the freshness of its pride",
        "The foliage of the undecaying trees;",
        "But fruits are ever ripe, flowers ever fair,",
        "And Autumn proudly bears her matron grace,",
        "Kindling a flush on the fair cheek of Spring,",
        "Whose virgin bloom beneath the ruddy fruit",
        "Reflects its tint and blushes into love.",
        "",
        "The habitable earth is full of bliss;",
        "Those wastes of frozen billows that were hurled",
        "By everlasting snow-storms round the poles,",
        "Where matter dared not vegetate nor live,",
        "But ceaseless frost round the vast solitude",
        "Bound its broad zone of stillness, are unloosed;",
        "And fragrant zephyrs there from spicy isles",
        "Ruffle the placid ocean-deep, that rolls",
        "Its broad, bright surges to the sloping sand,",
        "Whose roar is wakened into echoings sweet",
        "To murmur through the heaven-breathing groves",
        "And melodise with man's blest nature there.",
        "",
        "The vast tract of the parched and sandy waste",
        "Now teems with countless rills and shady woods,",
        "Corn-fields and pastures and white cottages;",
        "And where the startled wilderness did hear",
        "A savage conqueror stained in kindred blood,",
        "Hymmng his victory, or the milder snake",
        "Crushing the bones of some frail antelope",
        "Within his brazen folds--the dewy lawn,",
        "Offering sweet incense to the sunrise, smiles",
        "To see a babe before his mother's door,",
        "Share with the green and golden basilisk",
        "That comes to lick his feet, his morning's meal.",
        "",
        "Those trackless deeps, where many a weary sail",
        "Has seen, above the illimitable plain,",
        "Morning on night and night on morning rise,",
        "Whilst still no land to greet the wanderer spread",
        "Its shadowy mountains on the sunbright sea,",
        "Where the loud roarings of the tempest-waves",
        "So long have mingled with the gusty wind",
        "In melancholy loneliness, and swept",
        "The desert of those ocean solitudes,",
        "But vocal to the sea-bird's harrowing shriek,",
        "The bellowing monster, and the rushing storm,",
        "Now to the sweet and many-mingling sounds",
        "Of kindliest human impulses respond:",
        "Those lonely realms bright garden-isles begem,",
        "With lightsome clouds and shining seas between,",
        "And fertile valleys resonant with bliss,",
        "Whilst green woods overcanopy the wave,",
        "Which like a toil-worn labourer leaps to shore,",
        "To meet the kisses of the flowerets there.",
        "",
        "Man chief perceives the change, his being notes",
        "The gradual renovation, and defines",
        "Each movement of its progress on his mind.",
        "Man, where the gloom of the long polar night",
        "Lowered o'er the snow-clad rocks and frozen soil,",
        "Where scarce the hardiest herb that braves the frost",
        "Basked in the moonlight's ineffectual glow,",
        "Shrank with the plants, and darkened with the night;",
        "Nor where the tropics bound the realms of day",
        "With a broad belt of mingling cloud and flame,",
        "Where blue mists through the unmoving atmosphere",
        "Scattered the seeds of pestilence, and fed",
        "Unnatural vegetation, where the land",
        "Teemed with all earthquake, tempest and disease,",
        "Was man a nobler being; slavery",
        "Had crushed him to his country's blood-stained dust.",
        "",
        "Even where the milder zone afforded man",
        "A seeming shelter, yet contagion there,",
        "Blighting his being with unnumbered ills,",
        "Spread like a quenchless fire; nor truth availed",
        "Till late to arrest its progress, or create",
        "That peace which first in bloodless victory waved",
        "Her snowy standard o'er this favoured clime:",
        "There man was long the train-bearer of slaves,",
        "The mimic of surrounding misery,",
        "The jackal of ambition's lion-rage,",
        "The bloodhound of religion's hungry zeal.",
        "",
        "Here now the human being stands adorning",
        "This loveliest earth with taintless body and mind;",
        "Blest from his birth with all bland impulses,",
        "Which gently in his noble bosom wake",
        "All kindly passions and all pure desires.",
        "Him, still from hope to hope the bliss pursuing,",
        "Which from the exhaustless lore of human weal",
        "Dawns on the virtuous mind, the thoughts that rise",
        "In time-destroying infiniteness gift",
        "With self-enshrined eternity, that mocks",
        "The unprevailing hoariness of age,",
        "And man, once fleeting o'er the transient scene",
        "Swift as an unremembered vision, stands",
        "Immortal upon earth: no longer now",
        "He slays the beast that sports around his dwelling",
        "And horribly devours its mangled flesh,",
        "Or drinks its vital blood, which like a stream",
        "Of poison thro' his fevered veins did flow",
        "Feeding a plague that secretly consumed",
        "His feeble frame, and kindling in his mind",
        "Hatred, despair, and fear and vain belief,",
        "The germs of misery, death, disease and crime.",
        "No longer now the winged habitants,",
        "That in the woods their sweet lives sing away,",
        "Flee from the form of man; but gather round,",
        "And prune their sunny feathers on the hands",
        "Which little children stretch in friendly sport",
        "Towards these dreadless partners of their play.",
        "All things are void of terror: man has lost",
        "His desolating privilege, and stands",
        "An equal amidst equals: happiness",
        "And science dawn though late upon the earth;",
        "Peace cheers the mind, health renovates the frame;",
        "Disease and pleasure cease to mingle here,",
        "Reason and passion cease to combat there;",
        "Whilst mind unfettered o'er the earth extends",
        "Its all-subduing energies, and wields",
        "The sceptre of a vast dominion there.",
        "",
        "Mild is the slow necessity of death:",
        "The tranquil spirit fails beneath its grasp,",
        "Without a groan, almost without a fear,",
        "Resigned in peace to the necessity,",
        "Calm as a voyager to some distant land,",
        "And full of wonder, full of hope as he.",
        "The deadly germs of languor and disease",
        "Waste in the human frame, and Nature gifts",
        "With choicest boons her human worshippers.",
        "How vigorous now the athletic form of age!",
        "How clear its open and unwrinkled brow!",
        "Where neither avarice, cunning, pride, or care,",
        "Had stamped the seal of grey deformity",
        "On all the mingling lineaments of time.",
        "How lovely the intrepid front of youth!",
        "How sweet the smiles of taintless infancy.",
        "",
        "Within the massy prison's mouldering courts,",
        "Fearless and free the ruddy children play,",
        "Weaving gay chaplets for their innocent brows",
        "With the green ivy and the red wall-flower,",
        "That mock the dungeon's unavailing gloom;",
        "The ponderous chains, and gratings of strong iron,",
        "There rust amid the accumulated ruins",
        "Now mingling slowly with their native earth:",
        "There the broad beam of day, which feebly once",
        "Lighted the cheek of lean captivity",
        "With a pale and sickly glare, now freely shines",
        "On the pure smiles of infant playfulness:",
        "No more the shuddering voice of hoarse despair",
        "Peals through the echoing vaults, but soothing notes",
        "Of ivy-fingered winds and gladsome birds",
        "And merriment are resonant around.",
        "",
        "The fanes of Fear and Falsehood hear no more",
        "The voice that once waked multitudes to war",
        "Thundering thro' all their aisles: but now respond",
        "To the death dirge of the melancholy wind:",
        "It were a sight of awfulness to see",
        "The works of faith and slavery, so vast,",
        "So sumptuous, yet withal so perishing!",
        "Even as the corpse that rests beneath their wall.",
        "A thousand mourners deck the pomp of death",
        "To-day, the breathing marble glows above",
        "To decorate its memory, and tongues",
        "Are busy of its life: to-morrow, worms",
        "In silence and in darkness seize their prey.",
        "These ruins soon leave not a wreck behind:",
        "Their elements, wide-scattered o'er the globe,",
        "To happier shapes are moulded, and become",
        "Ministrant to all blissful impulses:",
        "Thus human things are perfected, and earth,",
        "Even as a child beneath its mother's love,",
        "Is strengthened in all excellence, and grows",
        "Fairer and nobler with each passing year.",
        "",
        "Now Time his dusky pennons o'er the scene",
        "Closes in steadfast darkness, and the past",
        "Fades from our charmed sight. My task is done:",
        "Thy lore is learned. Earth's wonders are thine own,",
        "With all the fear and all the hope they bring.",
        "My spells are past: the present now recurs.",
        "Ah me! a pathless wilderness remains",
        "Yet unsubdued by man's reclaiming hand.",
        "",
        "Yet, human Spirit, bravely hold thy course,",
        "Let virtue teach thee firmly to pursue",
        "The gradual paths of an aspiring change:",
        "For birth and life and death, and that strange state",
        "Before the naked powers that thro' the world",
        "Wander like winds have found a human home,",
        "All tend to perfect happiness, and urge",
        "The restless wheels of being on their way,",
        "Whose flashing spokes, instinct with infinite life,",
        "Bicker and burn to gain their destined goal:",
        "For birth but wakes the universal mind",
        "Whose mighty streams might else in silence flow",
        "Thro' the vast world, to individual sense",
        "Of outward shows, whose unexperienced shape",
        "New modes of passion to its frame may lend;",
        "Life is its state of action, and the store",
        "Of all events is aggregated there",
        "That variegate the eternal universe;",
        "Death is a gate of dreariness and gloom,",
        "That leads to azure isles and beaming skies",
        "And happy regions of eternal hope.",
        "Therefore, O Spirit! fearlessly bear on:",
        "Though storms may break the primrose on its stalk,",
        "Though frosts may blight the freshness of its bloom,",
        "Yet spring's awakening breath will woo the earth,",
        "To feed with kindliest dews its favourite flower,",
        "That blooms in mossy banks and darksome glens,",
        "Lighting the green wood with its sunny smile.",
        "",
        "Fear not then, Spirit, death's disrobing hand,",
        "So welcome when the tyrant is awake,",
        "So welcome when the bigot's hell-torch flares;",
        "'Tis but the voyage of a darksome hour,",
        "The transient gulf-dream of a startling sleep.",
        "For what thou art shall perish utterly,",
        "But what is thine may never cease to be;",
        "Death is no foe to virtue: earth has seen",
        "Love's brightest roses on the scaffold bloom,",
        "Mingling with freedom's fadeless laurels there,",
        "And presaging the truth of visioned bliss.",
        "Are there not hopes within thee, which this scene",
        "Of linked and gradual being has confirmed?",
        "Hopes that not vainly thou, and living fires",
        "Of mind as radiant and as pure as thou,",
        "Have shone upon the paths of men--return,",
        "Surpassing Spirit, to that world, where thou",
        "Art destined an eternal war to wage",
        "With tyranny and falsehood, and uproot",
        "The germs of misery from the human heart.",
        "Thine is the hand whose piety would soothe",
        "The thorny pillow of unhappy crime,",
        "Whose impotence an easy pardon gains,",
        "Watching its wanderings as a friend's disease:",
        "Thine is the brow whose mildness would defy",
        "Its fiercest rage, and brave its sternest will,",
        "When fenced by power and master of the world.",
        "Thou art sincere and good; of resolute mind,",
        "Free from heart-withering custom's cold control,",
        "Of passion lofty, pure and unsubdued.",
        "Earth's pride and meanness could not vanquish thee,",
        "And therefore art thou worthy of the boon",
        "Which thou hast now received: virtue shall keep",
        "Thy footsteps in the path that thou hast trod,",
        "And many days of beaming hope shall bless",
        "Thy spotless life of sweet and sacred love.",
        "Go, happy one, and give that bosom joy",
        "Whose sleepless spirit waits to catch",
        "Light, life and rapture from thy smile.",
        "",
        "The Daemon called its winged ministers.",
        "Speechless with bliss the Spirit mounts the car,",
        "That rolled beside the crystal battlement,",
        "Bending her beamy eyes in thankfulness.",
        "The burning wheels inflame",
        "The steep descent of Heaven's untrodden way.",
        "Fast and far the chariot flew:",
        "The mighty globes that rolled",
        "Around the gate of the Eternal Fane",
        "Lessened by slow degrees, and soon appeared",
        "Such tiny twinklers as the planet orbs",
        "That ministering on the solar power",
        "With borrowed light pursued their narrower way.",
        "Earth floated then below:",
        "The chariot paused a moment;",
        "The Spirit then descended:",
        "And from the earth departing",
        "The shadows with swift wings",
        "Speeded like thought upon the light of Heaven.",
        "",
        "The Body and the Soul united then,",
        "A gentle start convulsed Ianthe's frame:",
        "Her veiny eyelids quietly unclosed;",
        "Moveless awhile the dark blue orbs remained:",
        "She looked around in wonder and beheld",
        "Henry, who kneeled in silence by her couch,",
        "Watching her sleep with looks of speechless love,",
        "And the bright beaming stars",
        "That through the casement shone."
      ],
      "title": "The Daemon of the World"
    }
  ],
  "success": true
}